Lobbying is a form of corruption running through British politics - Yorkshire Post Letters

Re: Lobbying is playing too big a part in our politics - Andy Brown, page 11, TYP, July 14.

Andy Brown has a knack of writing sensible articles and his recent comments about lobbying are among his best.

The gambling industry is one of the worst offenders. It generously funds free trips to racecourses for MPs and their advisers. The consequences of their activities are bad.

The late Tessa Jowell, Minister overseeing gambling, was subject to much lobbying to allow fixed odds betting terminals in bookmakers shops. Despite warnings from people helping problem gamblers that this would lead to major problems, essentially, she gave the industry what it wanted. Tessa Jowell's shameful response was to dismiss critics as "patronising".

Later, problems predicted by charities working with problem gamblers came to pass with numbers addicted to fixed odds terminals rising. A disaster due to lobbying and a weak Minister, doubtless aided by Civil Servants.

Another major area is defence. Numerous high ranking service officers go on to work for defence industries. They take their knowledge of defence department workings to lobby more effectively for their new employers. So it isn't surprising that we have inflated budgets for overpriced naval and military equipment and many delays in development and commissioning are conveniently overlooked.

The Conservative Lord Pickles recently exposed some of the problems including the ‘revolving door’ between lobbying firms and civil servants. Other examples have been exposed in Private Eye but rarely surface in the ‘Fleet Street’ press.

In Britain we like to think political life is relatively uncorrupt, at least compared to more blatant practices in the USA and Third World countries.

In reality there is corruption at the top of some civil service departments and particularly in those supposedly ‘regulating’ private industries, mostly ignored by our politicians. The problem goes beyond any one party.

Britain needs ‘sea green incorruptibles’ but alas, they seem few and far between. Articles like that by Andy Brown can help expose what is going on but a great change in our political system is needed. And my apologies to Nigel Farage, it won't come from Reform.